Could've Been
by Ekai Ungson
Summary: What if you could somehow relive the past... and rectify one wrong choice? An attempt at combining two times. Clow/EriolxMadoushi/Tomoyo. Please be kind. ^-^
1. Jade

"Could've Been"   
by Ekai Ungson   
  
Previously disclaimed.   
  
Dedicated to: Luna, first.   
  
Chapter I: Jade   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
If you were given the chance to relive a space in your life, a day, maybe; a week, two? If   
you could go back in time and change one thing, just one thing, maybe remake a decision,   
so that your future wasn't as it was?   
  
Maybe you made a mistake, once, and you were given one more opportunity.   
  
What if you could un-make that mistake?   
  
Would you take that chance?   
  
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~   
  
She had long, glorious black hair.   
  
The only thing he could remember clearly about her; that is, what he could SEE clearly   
in his mind's eye was her long, black hair. Blacker than the skies at midnight. And beautiful.   
  
She told fortunes for a living, but he knew she was much, much more than a mere fortune teller.   
He knew she could see deeper into the depths of the water she used to tell of the future. She   
could extract power from the very element.   
  
And she was powerful, she was powerful.   
  
Madoushi.   
  
And she loved him with all her heart, and he never noticed at all, never noticed.   
  
No, that was wrong. He didn't NOT notice.   
  
He had refused to care.   
  
He had refused to love.   
  
And he had left her broken.   
  
I'm sorry.   
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~   
  
And Hiiragizawa Eriol woke up to the blare of the alarm clock.   
  
"That's peculiar," Akizuki Nakuru said to Spinel Sun. "Usually Eriol is so precognitive that he   
wakes up a second before the clock blares for FUN."   
  
The winged cat nodded somberly. "I think he was dreaming," Spinel recounted in a sullen voice.   
  
Nakuru whirled around. "Really, Suppi-chan! You make dreaming sound like it's such a bad thing!   
Why, only this morning I was dreaming that I was the princess of Candyland and that Touya-kun   
was king..."   
  
Spinel rolled his eyes.   
  
"--ANYWAY," Nakuru said, "I was VERY happy."   
  
The door opened.   
  
Eriol walked in, his shirt untucked, his hair uncombed, his glasses askew, and his socks not the same color.   
  
"You look like a wreck," Nakuru informed him.   
  
"He's in a lovely mood today," Spinel added.   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
"There's something very, very wrong with Eriol-kun today," a concerned Kinomoto Sakura said.   
"He looks.... pale."   
  
"There's always something wrong with Hiiragizawa," Li Syoaran quipped. "It's in his genetic makeup."   
  
"Be nice, Syaoran-kun," Sakura admonished. "Ne, Tomoyo-chan. Don't you think so, too?"   
  
Dadidouji Tomoyo looked up. "Don't I think, what?"   
  
"That there's something wrong with Eriol-kun," Sakura repeated.   
  
Tomoyo glancede at a forlorn lookiing Eriol.   
  
"I don't know, Sakura-chan."   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
Lately something was very, very wrong with her, too.   
  
Lately she'd been feeling.... there was no other word for it-- nostalgic. But. These memories   
weren't her own. They were some other person's, and yet she almost always found herself in   
the middle of this person's situations. Whenever she closed her eyes to sleep.   
  
And she wasn't sure if she was going mad.   
  
Every single night. Just one dream. Same feelings, she couldn't explain, but felt.   
  
Pain. Grief. Loss. Love. Drowned in a world of water from tears shed.   
  
Madoushi. 


	2. Iliad

varon: oops. sorry. i've been a bit under the weather. but not too under. after all, i produced this, didn't i? *glomps* for you!  
  
Could've Been   
by Ekai Ungson  
  
-------  
  
What is the destiny of one being where two souls exist?  
  
  
II: Iliad  
  
We all know that Clow Reed reincarnated himself into me. We know he did it to supposedly guide the next Card Master-- or Mistress, in this case.  
  
But would you really believe that Clow would be so unselfish?  
  
Heh.  
  
Of course he'd have an ulterior motive. He always does. And you know what it is?  
  
I think he reincarnated himself because he wanted to relive his life.  
  
Note. Not his past. His LIFE.  
  
Clow made a lot of stupid choices in his lifetime. For instance, he chose to dedicate his whole life to his work and leave room for nothing else. THAT was one of the most stupid choices ever.  
  
He forgot to live, and now he's RE-living-- in me.  
  
Forget that I have a life, too.  
  
That's not all. There's one more reason.  
  
Clow wants to find Madoushi.  
  
Well, HE'S an insane git. There are over a billion people in the world. Where does he want me to look for his water mage? Where am I going to start?  
  
These dreams are getting to me.   
  
All right.I confess I'd do the same. I have the power. And the love of your very life isn't something you simply ignore.   
  
But there is no denying the fact that it IS some sort of a major inconvenience to the one you'd bestow the job on, right? The poor man should have his own bloody life to live.  
  
Like I do.  
  
But I guess Clow wasn't thinking again.  
  
------  
"We have to produce a play."  
  
"A what?" Syaoran repeated.  
  
"A play," Yanagisawa Naoko said. "For-- take a wild guess-- Culture. Shirahime-sensei says we don't pass without one."  
  
The class groaned.  
  
"And that's not all," Naoko continued. "We have to finish within a one-month period. Everything from the script to the set."  
  
"Just a MONTH?!" the class chorused.  
  
"AND it has to be an original play," Naoko finished, dropping the last bomb. "So we can't use the old 'Sleeping Beauty' standby."  
  
"Thank God," Syaoran breathed.  
  
"But then what are we going to do? Who's going to make up a story?" someone asked.  
  
All eyes turned to Eriol and Yamazaki Takashi.  
  
They stared dumbly back.  
  
"What?"  
  
------  
  
"Now. No nonsense, Yamazaki-kun. This is serious. If we all don't pass this requirement you KNOW how many of us will be ready to kill you," Mihara Chiharu threatened.  
  
Yamazaki bobbed his head eagerly.  
  
"And YOU, Hiiragizawa-kun," Chiharu turned to Eriol.  
  
Eriol grinned winningly. "I think you've done enough threatening to Yamazaki-kun, Mihara-san, for me to get the point, really." He raised his right hand. "I promise to do good, even in the event that I be tempted to fool off because of Yamazaki-kun's brilliant nonsense."  
  
"I resent that!" Yamazaki cried.  
  
Chiharu smiled in malevolent satisfaction and left the room.  
  
Eriol grinned.  
  
------  
  
Yamazaki paced and Eriol sat, tapping a pen against the side of his desk, a blank sheet of paper in front of him.  
  
"How about the origins of chocolate?" Yamazaki suggested. "Did you know that ancient Tibetans went all the way to China on ship they dubbed 'the good ship Wanggo' to harvest--"  
  
"That's enough, Yamazaki-kun, be serious," Eriol said. "Our lives are depending on this!"  
  
"It's a good idea!" Yamazaki said defensively.  
  
"Chocolate?" Eriol repeated incredulously. "Only Li would go for that idea."  
  
Yamazaki huffed pompously.  
  
"We need something... drastic," Eriol pronounced. "Something to sweep the audience off their feet. Something that will get us an instant A. Something..."  
  
Yamazaki sat down. "Romantic. That way it'll appeal to the female population, and we at least get points for getting a large crowd."  
  
"Great, great. A historical romance of..."  
  
"unrequited love."  
  
Eriol looked up.  
  
------  
  
Yamazaki wrote down something that resembled a script while Eriol paced, spinning a tale of unrequited love and woe and other cliches.   
  
He told of a sorcerer and a water mage, struggling for dominance in old, old China, and in the face of all that adversity, one love...  
  
And a tragedy.  
  
------  
  
"You made a play about YOURSELF?" Syaoran cried in indignation.  
  
"It's about Clow-san," Sakura corrected. "And Madoushi. It's actually quite good."  
  
Naoko went to the front of the class.  
  
"We've read the script and decided on the roles. The role of Clow Reed the sorcerer goes to Hiiragizawa-kun, because we swear he's perfect for the job."  
  
Applause.  
  
"And the role of Madoushi, the water mage, goes to... Daidouji-san."  
  
-------------------------------------------------------  
notes: . 


	3. Elithia

legality: CLAMP owns it. go down on thy knees, peons, and hail them.  
  
Varon, AND Linda, AND Chelle: Again. To satisfy thy cravings. Here. Be glad I'm on a roll and I'm writing THIS fast.  
  
*glomps Varon* Me love you. Me love you much and here, again, for you. ^_^  
  
Could've Been  
by Ekai Ungson  
  
-------  
  
And this is where it all begins, a tale of love and sorrow, in Old China, of a sorcerer, and a water mage.  
  
III: Elithia  
  
I remember, clearly, the day I met her.  
  
When I first moved to a small town in China, I had heard many stories-- rumors-- of a great fortune-teller whose power was like none other.  
  
But when I settled myself in, the people found my predictuons more accurate than her water magic, and one day she came into my house with all the fury of a woman scorned.  
  
Those eyes. A pity I cannot remember the color of those eyes, that even though they called down all hell on my head, were still very beautiful.  
  
------  
  
"Are you the man they call Clow Reed?"  
  
"I am."  
  
------  
  
Clow Reed's face is charmingly deceiving. His eyes forever dance in amusement, and a smile is always painted on his pale face. He shows no stress, no pain nor sadness. This man was SICK. That, or he wasn't human.  
  
The woman approaches, cautiously but surely, driven by rage more than any other. "They tell me you are a sorcerer. How is this true?"  
  
He only smiled. "They call me whatever they want, I do not much care."  
  
She backed up a step, surprised. "Do you know that by being here, simply being here, you are wrecking me?"  
  
"I do nothing to you. I do not know you."  
  
She glared at him. "My name is Madoushi. Remember it."  
  
He did. He remembered her name for the rest of his life, and his life after.  
  
------  
  
"How lame of a script is that?" Syaoran scowled. "Clow's lines are so convolutedly Hiiragizawa."  
  
"Clow-san IS Eriol-kun," Sakura said. "Or don't you remember?"  
  
"I keep trying to forget," Syaoran muttered. Then he mumbled something that went like "I can't believe, still CAN'T believe that I came from the genes of that... that creature that calls himself human..."  
  
"What was that, Syaoran-kun?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing..."  
  
Meanwhile, in a corner, Tomoyo began to read the script she had to perform.  
  
------  
  
The wind picks up and dust swirls around just outside the sanctuary of a well.  
  
She sits at the stone's edge, one hand touching the water with the tip of one finger, enough to create ripples on the still surface.  
  
Two birds descend from the skies, fly into the depths within the pillars, perch on her hand. She smiles as they croon softly.  
  
A movement startles her. She looks up to find a man in robes of balck and dark blue staring at her.  
  
------  
  
Tomoyo dropped the script as if it were on fire. How was that? It read real, as if it had happened to her. TOO real.  
  
What was happening to her? Had Hiiragizawa-kun placed a spell on the script?  
  
But if he did, why weren't Sakura-chan and Li-kun picking up on the kehai? She stared at the said pair, reading their own scripts, but they didn't look any startled or worried.  
  
What was this feeling?  
  
Dokashite iru...  
  
Demo, nani desu ka?  
  
She glanced around in confusion.  
  
And found Hiiragizawa Eriol, up at the stage, staring at her.  
  
Immediately, the noise disappeared, the surroundings dissolved. The people around her were gone, and only he and her remained.  
  
Slowly, before her very eyes, he was dressed in the dark robes of Clow, she knew because she had seen him in them before, but NOT this way. She put a hand over her heart and was surprised to see it in red silk. She was in robes of red and gold. A well with four pillars had risen from nowhere behind her. She looked back at Hiiragizawa. What the hell?  
  
/This is not real. This is not real! I'm... seeing things.../  
  
/'This is as real as it gets,'/ a voice from above said, and she looked up to see two birds circling in a crayon-paint sky of blue.  
  
/'You are me,'/ said the voice.  
  
/Who are you?/ Tomoyo asked.  
  
/'And I am you. We are one, half and half of one soul.'/  
  
/Who are you?/ Tomoyo repeated.  
  
She turned to stare back at Clow-- iie, Eriol-- and rage welled up from within her. Rage, and a strong, unkown sort of emotion...  
  
/'I have been waiting all this time...'/  
  
/Who are you?!/  
  
/'... and now... I have found him.'/  
  
Tomoyo shook her head. When she opened her eys, everything was back to normal.  
  
Eriol was still staring at her.  
  
She didn't know if he felt it, too.  
  
------  
  
Eriol watched as Tomoyo picked up her script off the floor and walked out of the auditorium.  
  
What was that kehai? Sakura nor Xiao Lang didn't seem to have picked up on it.  
  
And, more importantly, was that his imagination, or was that Madoushi, within the depths of Tomoyo's eyes?  
  
What in the name of all sacred and holy was going on?  
  
------------------------------------------  
  
notes:   
  
- "dokashite iru": supposedly means 'something is wrong'. i got it from my dad's "Japanese for Today" book. . 


End file.
